The following four lines of verse are among the best known and most loved in English poetry: To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour. They were written in 1803 by William Blake (1757-1827), English mystic and visionary, poet and painter, and comprise the first stanza of a poem, which was found after his death in a notebook and not published until 1863. The long poem, entitled Auguries of Innocence, exhibits Blake's compassion and passionate belief, railing against injustice and inhumanity. He influenced and inspired the Romantic poets and subsequent generations until today. I thought of Blake's wild flower when I first saw in Egypt, in the Pharaonic Collections of the Cairo Agricultural Museum, a preserved garland of flowers and leaves that had been placed around the coffin of a Pharaonic mummy. Fresh when they adorned the dead Pharaoh, the garlands of dried and fragile flowers and leaves that have survived transcend time. They seem to speak to us of those who gathered the flowers as well as those who cultivated plants in their gardens, many of which contained exotic species that were first introduced into Egypt several thousand years ago. Floral offerings have been found in many Ancient Egyptian tombs, which were placed there not only for their intrinsic beauty, but also for symbolic reasons. In his fascinating book Pharaoh's Flowers – The Botanical Treasures of Tutankhamun (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 1990, HMSO London, 2nd edition, 2009, KWS publishers, Chicago), F. Nigel Hepper describes and illustrates both the actual floral offerings and the designs they inspired in artefacts found in the young Pharaoh's tomb, together with photographs and drawings of the plants. They include the delicate wild cornflower, one of the flowers that would have been very familiar to Blake, especially in those pre-pesticide days, with their heavenly blue contrasting with the brilliant scarlet of poppies (also depicted in Tutankhamun's tomb) in golden fields of grain and green meadows. Hepper states that the plant has not been reported from Egypt for many decades, and it is doubtful if it would have ever occurred naturally as a wild flower in Egypt, which is outside its likely range. The cornflower's popularity in tomb paintings and as motifs in faience in necklaces, as well as its use in offerings and garlands, suggests that it must have been commonly grown as a cultivated plant. Also found in Tutankhamun's and other Pharaohs' tombs was a profusion of papyrus and the lotus water lily reflecting both their abundance and significance in Ancient Egypt. Papyrus, which then grew in dense swamps in the Delta, was the symbol of Lower Egypt and the lotus, which can still be found in Egyptian canals, was the symbol of Upper Egypt. Papyrus fibre had myriad uses, not least when prepared and pressed a writing material, as well as being depicted in wall paintings. The blue and the white lotus were mainly decorative, featuring in garlands, and offerings and designs. Aptly described by Howard Carter, the finder of Tutankhamun's tomb with its wealth of treasures as "exquisite" was a lamp in the form of a three-flowered white lotus water lily, made from a single piece of alabaster and now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. In one of the introductory chapters to the herbal, Lise Manniche in her informed book An Ancient Egyptian Herbal (revised edition 1999, British Museum Press, London and an edition available only in Egypt published by the American University in Cairo Press in 2006) describes the beautiful gardens of the Ancient Egyptians. They often included cultivated wild flowers and a fishpond as the garden's ornamental centrepiece, with lotus floating on the water's surface and richly planted banks. She also details bouquets, garlands and collars including those on the coffins of Tutankhamun, who was buried in 1339 BC, such as one charming small wreath placed around the vulture and serpent decorating the king's brow on the second golden coffin. It consisted of olive leaves, petals of blue lotus and heads of cornflower bound together by papyrus. The olive leaves were arranged alternating their silvery upper surfaces with the dark green lower ones. She remarks how effective this subtle little wreath must have been against the gleaming golden coffin with its blue inlaid eyes and eyebrows. Faraldi has lived in Upper Egypt and then Cairo, since 1991, working in higher education and as a researcher, writer and editor.
